'Mighty' Sampson

By Ryn Gargulinski
Triplicate staff writer

Crescent City's Miraleen Woodley grew up with sheep, horses, dogs, cats, pigs and even a family cow — but she never thought she'd end up with a pet goat in a wheelchair.

"A lady asked me if I ate goat meat because she had a crippled goat," Woodley said of a woman she knows in Cave Junction, Ore. "I looked at the goat and fell in love."

For Woodley, that wasn't hard to do. Raised on a Humboldt County farm, she has long sowed a fondness for animals, especially goats and sheep.

"I would never eat either one," she said. "I love them too much."

So much so that instead of taking the crippled goat to make a gyro, she took him home, named him and even got him his own wheelchair.

"His name is Sampson because he's strong and he's mighty," Woodley said of the Nubian goat, a strong, proud breed that originally hails from the Orient. "He's got the willpower to survive his handicap."

She said Sampson was born with angular deformation — his back legs stick out, useless, behind him.

Woodley said it's not a genetic thing, but rather the result of an accident. Sampson's mother was slammed into a wall when she was pregnant with four baby goats a little more than a year ago.

Two of the babies were born dead and Sampson's sister recently died.

But Sampson stands — or rather sits — strong.

"A friend gave me a wheelchair and I cut holes in it so he can ride," Woodley said. She said it's an old chair and she's saving for a new one. She's also saving for an operation to fix Sampson's legs, which she expects would cost about $2,000.
"It'll be a lot easier on him — and me," Woodley said.

She takes Sampson on walks several times a week and can often be glimpsed pushing Sampson's chair along Bertsch and Le Clair avenues or down by the waterfront. He even likes to visit the Northcoast Marine Mammal Center and gawk at the baby seals.

"He's just like a little kid," she said.

For perhaps obvious reasons, Woodley said a walk with Sampson always draws a crowd. "And lots of pictures."

This is not to say when Sampson's not in the chair he is idle.

"Sometimes he'll get on his two front legs and head-butt if the other goats get around him," she said. "He's very outgoing."

Sampson enjoys human company so much, Woodley said, that he'll sometimes cry when left alone in the pen.

Woodley said he also has his share of antics.

"When he wants a drink he'll lick his lips," Woodley said. "He also wakes me up in the morning when he has to go outside."

Yes, Woodley housebreaks her goats — she owns several and said it's not unlike housebreaking a puppy — and added that Sampson often sleeps in her bed with her.

"Goats are very loving, kind and affectionate," Woodley said. "They're a lot like people."

This article originally appeared in the June 8, 2006, issue of The Daily Triplicate.